Willbanks' Down Under: 347 + 243 Weeks

I was so sad this week when I realised that summer was over! It feels like summer passed us by :( We did make it to the beach on Saturday for what hopefully isn't the last hurrah for the season. It was beautiful. Carmie is obsessed with jumping the waves with her dad, and has become quite savvy in the ocean. Arley stays by my side and prefers to sit on the rocks with me and get splashed. We also made the 'world's biggest' sandcastle for the kids to smash down. For the next two days it rained torrentially and we had some much needed home-days. For the most part Arley was really calm and grounded, and did lots of colouring in. We have had over a week without iPads, which has been quite nice really. Carmie learned how to make herself scrambled eggs, and we all played quite a few games of Sleeping Queens.

On Tuesday the sun came out again so we met a friend, Finn, for a play at Mollymook park. Afterward the kids and I decided to have a picnic at Dolphin Point. It was really low tide and not as beautiful as usual, but great for exploring. We walked all the way around the point, and the kids did a little bit of minor rock climbing which they were very proud of.

On Wednesday we met Kai, a friend of Arley's, down at the sea pool. It was a hot day, but the water was freezing! The pool was lovely and it was so nice to sit by the pool and hear the waves. The kids had fun because Kai is such a scallawag, they couldn't stop laughing at him. After the pool the kids spent some time at their Lolo and Dida's so I could run a few errands. That night we had dinner at Collers Beach as it was the last day of summer and the weather was amazing. Bella loved her run, and we're all really sad that our lovely beach dinners will be over soon.

Thursday was such a busy day. We drove up to Sanctuary Point so that Carmie could be involved in a homeschool radio program that takes place once a week. It is a group of eight kids who read stories in the form of plays, tell jokes and riddles and the like. She loved it. The program gets edited down to a half hour slot and gets aired every Friday. She is super excited to hear herself on the radio, and Arley is very jealous that he is not old enough to do it too. While Carmie did radio, Arley and I hung out with friends in the nearby skate park. Arley is very slow and steady on his scooter, but he is improving. After that we drove home and had a picnic in our neighbourhood park so that Carmie could get some exercise before Japanese class. While she was in Japanese class, Arley scooted around some more on the track at the Dunn Lewis Centre. Next week while the kids are doing Japanese class, the rest of us are going to start gardening in the community garden centre there. Thursdays are going to be really busy days from now on.

Last night Lolo and Dida looked after the kids while Jeff and I went out to dinner and then on to a classical music concert. It was an international orchestra playing the works of Paganini, Bach and Vivaldi, to name a few, and it was amazing. And it was so nice to be out and about as independent child-free adults again! Arley cried and cried when I left, and this morning he was very grumpy with us, even though they both had a great time with their grandparents last night. His separation anxiety is still pretty strong, but we are working on it.

At Mollymook Beach